Yeah, roughly four days after beating Zelda I beat Ultimate Spider Man. I’ve just been putting off writing a review. USM takes the tried and true formula from Spider Man 2 and takes it to the comic world. The game plays just like a comic would read, and even ends just as fast. Read on to find out how good the game really is.

Well, I do have to say that the game is beautiful. It looks just like a comic book, and strangely like the MTV Spider-Man television series (not sure if they’re connected). The characters look nice, a lot more like their original comic book versions than their recent big-screen portrayals. The cut scenes are also nice, and they play out through comic panels (a la XIII). The audio is also nice, and the voice acting is excellent. The actors chosen for the job did a great job and really fit their roles. Another nice thing is the comedy. Spider-Man is really funny, and his witty comments throughout the game really enhance the experience.

The gameplay is very similar to previous Spider-Man games, with a few changes. First off, the swinging is a lot easier than previous games (SM2, SM, etc), and makes complex movements a lot easier with less buttons. The missions are nice, the boss battles are somewhat harder than they should be, and the things you have to do in between the missions are small and inconsequential. However, during the game you are able to play as Venom, and this really keeps the game from getting old, as he has his own style of movement and combat.

The game, however, is very short. I beat the main story in four and a half hours. Yeah. However, once the game is over, you get free roam of New York as either Spider-Man or Venom, and there are a lot of challenges to get through. The down side? None of them are really fun; races and combat tours are unnecessarily hard, random city events are easy but far in between, and the only reward for beating all of these is a few new costumes. After about an hour of this, I just got too sick of playing to continue. Replay value is nice, since the story mode was actually pretty fun (although lack of a difficulty option really hurts the game). If you’re debating whether to buy or rent, let me paraphrase one GameFAQs reviewer on the topic: “Rent the game, you’ll beat it in an hour”. Rent the game, as it fulfills hardly any of my ratios for a good game.

Bottom line is this: Get Spider-Man 2. It’s the same game, a lot funner, and playing as the Green Goblin is a lot more rewarding than playing as Venom. Sorry USM, but you’re just not as good as your predecessor.